London Run

No Congestion Charge!

Left Ipswich at 7am

Hyde Park 9.30am

Afternoon tea with the Queen!

There was a suggestion on the Owners Club Forum by the West London Area Coordinator that it might be feasible to do a run around central London on the Bank Holiday Monday after the New Year, when the traffic should be fairly light and the congestion charge would not apply. This sounded just a bit mad but a couple of us followed the thread for a while and then decided, “why not”, “should be a laugh”.

On the day three Eastern Region cars left from Ipswich at 7.00am, in the dark, for the drive to London. Another car left from even further afield in Peterborough to meet as in London. The weather was chilly but dry, ideal for a top down drive!

We picked up a couple of local members at Brentwood then began the trickier convoy run into London to endeavour to arrive in a car park in the middle of Hyde Park for about 9.30am. I drew the short straw “yet again” and was designated convoy leader. With the exception of a small incident with some red traffic lights just before Hyde Park the five of us all arrived safely and well on time. About fifteen cars then took part in the Central London run, taking in such sites as Buckingham Palace, The Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, St Paul’s and Canada Wharf in Docklands. The traffic was as predicted fairly light which meant one eye on the speedo, one on the map ,one on the road, one on the famous sites and the other looking out for the numerous speed cameras, traffic light cameras and bus lane cameras!!!

A high light for some drivers was undoubtedly travelling through the Blackwall Tunnel and the chance to get the full effect from their various noisy mods, but I am not going to say who they were!

Two of the Eastern Region party and another car then took a slight diversion on the A2 after the tunnel and it was not until signs for Dover started to appear that we realised we had gone some way in the wrong direction. However after a quick stop and much pouring over maps and the sat nav we were back on course. The final destination was the Hare and Billet PH in Blackheath for lunch, we finally arrived, in last place. After a nice leisurely lunch. Plenty of chat and some soft drinks we said farewell to London and headed back up North, passing the Cutty Sark and through Greenwich on the way home.

Overall a brilliant day out, and well worth the early start, certainly not a drive you would want to do on any other day of the year…..

Thanks to Bob Pain (aka Sparkly Berkeley Bob) the West London AC for organising the day and planning the route.

Meeting point at Hype Park Corner.

Wot you lookin' at?

On route.

Blackheath.

Looks familiar.

Many thanks to the contributors of the above photographs.